Just a girl, counting down the days until her wedding...making sure it's picture perfect, with every breakdown along the way.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

"What - 20 months is plenty of time to plan without ANY stress"

The golden words that I spoke - oh 5 months ago. Let me tell you how that is working so far: I have 20 out of 525 things done, I have cried because I am overwhelmed 4 times, and I still can't so no to anyone. That means, the golden words aren't worth a golden crap.

Allow me to start at the beginning, we had a beautiful engagement on October 9th, 2010 and I knew I wanted to get married on July 7th, 2012. That granted me 20 (minus 3 days) months, 20 months to relax and do-it-myself plan my whole wedding without having to hire anyone. I was ready for this, I was BORN ready for this! I had put that my-size barbie wedding dress on when I was 5 and began the journey as the girl in 27 Dresses. Kate Heigl has nothing on me, I live that movie. I can tape a boob, do some hair, nails and feed the whole bridal party without a sweat, with 6 weddings under my belt to prove it - my wedding would be NO problem.

It all started with one minor (haha MAJOR) change. My fiance(FI) and I were planning a gorgeous big cathedral wedding in Pittsburgh. The whole nine yards, we even found a beautiful church and reception site that fit our colors. Yeah...that was until lunch with my Mom, where I was reminded I overlooked a HUGE issue. My family was not going to lug their WV/MD/VA butts up to Northern PA - so I either got my Pittsburgh wedding family-less or I had to have one of the hardest come-to-Jesus conversations with my FI I did not want to have. We moved it to VA, and I had to let go of one of my and my FI's biggest wedding dreams.

So, we are getting married in VA - at the church we attend together and it's a wonderful choice. We also found a place that will hold our guests. Which brings me to my next hair puller. The guest list. In PA a guest list of 300 isn't bad because you can find places to put them and feed them for $16 a person, and that is a beautiful thing. In VA, not so much. If there are places that hold 300, it costs $90 a person...and I am def. not Princess Di who could afford that. I did a long search, with no rescue. Until the Expo Center came to me. I know it doesn't sound very fancy, but it's perfect for us...and the 230-250 guests I decided we should cut it down to.

So, guests...guests, guests, guests, guests, guest. The battle I will never win. I finally got argued to 250. I gave my Mom(MOB) & My Future-Mom-In-Law(FMIL) a blank list of 100 spaces for names & addresses, and we got 50. Called it a day. Then, our 50 went to 60. So, now we are back at 300. Oh, 300 if you grow any bigger I will just book a trip to Fiji, and cancel this whole thing. Get a priest on a beach, and get married in front of the starfish. That's it!

Lastly, for my ramble today...we get to the fact that I can't say no. Ever heard the saying "opinions are like buttholes, everyone has one"? Welp, everyone is sharing theirs...and I am agreeing with all of them. NOT a good thing for a bride planning her perfect dream wedding, which is turning into everyone elses dream wedding. It almost happened to my dress, but I put my foot down. So, the objective for the next 5 months is learn to say no.

I will continue the daily battle with the FI, MOB, FMIL & $$$...keeping the updates along the way. Hopefully I come out of the next 15 months without a bald spot.